Thursday, February 28, 2008

Th!nk CEO Jan Olaf Willums made a return appearance at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco this week. He sat down with Todd Woody, Business 2.0's Green Wombat. The small 2 seater Th!nk City is rolling off the Norwegian assembly line and 500 cars are set for March delivery. Cars will be delivered in London and Paris and Scandinavia. The strategy of delivering cars to urban centers with incentive programs bodes well for California cities, especially if CARB comes up with better incentives for battery electric cars.

Equally exciting are the plans for a larger 4 or 5 passenger car in partnership with an established auto maker. Referring to Tesla's planned White Star, Willums said,

"We won't compete with Tesla," says Willums. "The Tesla will be more a BMW; we'll be more the Volkswagen."

Friday, February 15, 2008

There's much I should be blogging these days and hopefully will shortly. The pathetic CARB staff ZEV recommendations (here); Bob Lutz's latest inanity about inefficient windshield wipers effect on electric cars' range; London's step backward on the congestion charge. I'll get to them.

But for now, enjoy a pointed chuckle. Check out the blog Stuff White People Like on the Prius. Reminds me to blog about that Lexus ad campaign casting a spell around the letter h. How to spin a false green consciousness around a gasoline burning luxury automobile.

Over the years, white people have gone through a number of official cars. In the 1980s it was the Saab and the Volvo. By the 1990s it was the Volkswagen Jetta or a Subaru 4WD stastion wagon. But these days, there is only one car for white people. One car that defines all that they love: the Toyota Prius.

The Prius might be the most perfect white product ever. It’s expensive, gives the idea that you are helping the environment, and requires no commitment/changes other than money.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Even as BMW clean car honchos tour the globe with the Hydrogen 7, the German automaker could be coming to terms with reality. According to Drive, an Australian magazine

The head of BMW's clean-energy technology, Jochen Schmalholz, says hydrogen-powered cars are still 15 to 20 years away from being on the road "in significant numbers" and revealed the German maker is also working on an electric vehicle.

With only 5 liquid hydrogen filling stations in the world available to fuel the 100 Hydrogen 7s - "Distribution is the biggest hurdle to the hydrogen car," Schmalholz says - it could be dawning on BMW that it would be better to develop cars for the electric infrastructure already in place around the world.

He says BMW is also working on an electric car but a decision on production is yet to be made.

"We will only bring this [electric car] if it makes sense," he says. "At the moment we are not really convinced it will work for BMW. But if it makes commercial sense and it makes sense to our customers, then we will do it."